Foundry

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

rye grass transition and bermuda grass

The summer has come on strong with 90 plus temperatures. This is good for growing Bermuda grass quickly, however it is not so good for rye grass. We have had some issues with tree line management as it relates to the Bermuda grass coming out of the worst winter in over 15 years. The Bermuda grass is less than 15 months old in most tree line areas on the front nine of the golf course. It was very young and not suited to handle a winter like we received last year. It will take a couple of years to see full maturity of the Bermuda grass. This is to be expected after a course has been renovated. Unless unseasonable tempertures create better growing conditions Looking at some old records of the Foundry, the same issue happened with the vamont Bermuda grass in 1993. It suffered a cold winter and there were large areas of Bermuda grass winter kill that had to be replaced. This was a less than two year after opening.

Just to note that last year we had to replace 10 acres of Bermuda grass in the month May for the opening in July. Most of the golfers did not even realize that once we opened the doors for play. This year we had 2.5 acres of winter kill total. Including the areas we will replace in fairways. Within a few weeks the Bermuda grass will be 95 percent covered in the fairways.